From the U.S. Government Accountability Office, www.gao.gov
Transcript for: Watchdog Report #8: TSA's Aviation Security Efforts
Audio interview by GAO staff with Stephen Lord, Director, Homeland
Security and Justice
Released on: March 17, 2010
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[ Narrator: ] Welcome to GAO's Watchdog Report, your source for news and
information from the Government Accountability Office. It's March 17th,
2010. Since the attempted bombing of Northwest Flight 253 in December
2009, aviation security issues have frequently made headlines. One such
issue is the use of whole body imaging or advanced imaging technology,
also known as AIT. A group led by Steve Lord, a Director in GAO's
Homeland Security and Justice team, examined the deployment of AIT by
the Transportation Security Administration or TSA, and the agency's
efforts to improve screening in other areas of aviation security. GAO
analyst Jeremy Cluchey sat down with Steve to learn more.
[ Jeremy Cluchey: ] What is advanced imaging technology?
[ Steve Lord: ] Well, it's a technology that TSA is now using to look
for objects hidden on a person's body, and itís used in conjunction with
the image operator who reads an image of your body that's projected on
the screen to interpret.
[ Jeremy Cluchey: ] TSA's plans for implementing the advanced imaging
technology or AIT and other new screening procedures were recently
accelerated. Can you talk about the reasons for this and the status of
this implementation process?
[ Steve Lord: ] Sure. As you probably know on December 25th, on
Northwest Airlines Flight 253, there was an attempted bombing, and
largely in reaction to that incident, TSA's accelerating its plans to
deploy this technology. They're going to not only procure increased
numbers, but accelerate the deployment. Previously, they aimed to
procure 876 units. Now, the total buy is going to be 1,800, so that's
more than twofold increase in the number of units they plan to acquire.
[ Jeremy Cluchey: ] There have been some concerns raised over the
implications of AITs for passenger privacy. To what extent has GAO found
that TSA is addressing these concerns?
[ Steve Lord: ] The TSA has taken several steps to mitigate the privacy
concerns. They segregated the image operator in a separate room. They
disabled the AIT device itself to make it impossible to store an image.
They've taken a whole host of other measures including prohibiting the
use of cell phones or electronics in the screening room to help address
some of these privacy concerns.
[ Jeremy Cluchey: ] What other challenges does TSA face as it seeks to
implement AIT and other screening procedures?
[ Steve Lord: ] Well, the question we raised in our prior report that
still rings true today is how does this accelerated increased AIT
deployment fit in to the passenger checkpoint, and how is it going to be
integrated with all the other technologies we're currently using? Also,
some of the airport operators have raised some concerns about space.
These units take up additional space. In some instances, airports have
limited space to house these units. So, since you need to setup a
separate room for a screening image operator, that also poses some space
challenges.
[ Jeremy Cluchey: ] To what extent is cost a challenge that TSA faces in
this implementation?
[ Steve Lord: ] Well, this is also a very important issue we're raising
in our March 17th statement and hearing -- is you not only need to
deploy the actual unit, you need to also deploy staff to interpret the
images and relay any concerns to the screening checkpoint. And this
additional staff represents additional cost that the Congress needs to
recognize. For every AIT unit TSA plans to deploy, it's going to require
three additional staff. So, assuming each unit operates two shifts a day
on average, that's six additional staff that are going to need to be
hired to man these units, and that represents a significant cost. We
estimate it's going to be close to $2.4 billion over the life cycle of
the project.
[ Jeremy Cluchey: ] What other aspects of aviation security is TSA
currently working on and what sort of progress has GAO found that
they're making?
[ Steve Lord: ] Well, TSA has a multilayered approach to aviation
security. The good news is we're involved in looking at several of these
other areas as well. For example, we're on the verge of completing a
comprehensive review of their efforts to screen air cargo. Most of the
attention today is focused on technology used to screen
passengers--people who sit above the floor, so to speak--but I believe
it's also important to think about what goes below the floor, what
processes, procedures, technologies are you using to screen air cargo.
Congress has imposed the August 2010 deadline on TSA and air carriers to
screen 100 percent of air cargo. We're closely watching those
developments as well.
[ Narrator: ] To learn more, visit GAO's Web site at gao.gov, and be
sure to tune in to the next edition of GAO's Watchdog Report for more
from the congressional watchdog, the Government Accountability Office.
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